Friday, March 18, 2016

Today at Logos

Walt,
Jeri, and Alice Nan rolled into town a little before lunchtime yesterday
morning. Jeri had flown into So. California on Sunday, Walt had taken
the train down to Santa Barbara on Monday and on Wednesday they drove up to
Petaluma to see Uncle Norm and wife Olivia.

Thursday morning they made their way to Davis, in time for
Alice Nan to realize one of her goals: to finally get to see Logos.
She's heard about it forever, but today she got to actually go there.

She found it smaller than she imagined. She said the
bookcases weren't as tall as she thought and the arrangement of the desk to
front door was different than in her imagination, but she really liked the
place. Of course. Who wouldn't?

She and Jeri were my first customers today.

Jeri bought a copy of "Room" to read on the plane going back
to Boston and also a copy of "The Color Purple," since she had never read
it. Alice Nan picked up a copy of Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto."

It was a medium day. The first part of my shift was
very slow, but things picked up considerably around 4. Susan said we
made $279 for the day, which is a decent showing, Probably because of
the lovely weather outside.

My next customer was the train guy who once again stopped in
to buy something to read on the train. He bought a bargain book and,
as he left, he said see you next quarter" so I guess he won't be around for
awhile.

An older woman bought a book from the Lit section and
expressed surprise that James Michener was in Lit and not Contemporary
Fiction.

A shy looking Asian young man car

rying a gift-wrapped tube
came in. He looked around forever and finally bought a book by
Ogden Nash ("I'm a Stranger Here Myself"). When he paid me, he
carefully counted out the coins like I do when using foreign currency.

A bearded bald guy dressed all in black. He was
talking on his cell phone when he entered and waved at me. He chose a
book, paid for it, waved and left again and never got off the phone.

A woman was looking for the book "What is Visible" by
Kimberly Elkins, which they were reading in her book club. She knew
nothing about the book and I checked it out on Amazon and found it was about
a 19th century woman who lost four of her five senses to Scarlet Fever but
by age 20 was considered the 19th century's 2nd most famous woman (the
review didn't say who was the first!)

Midway
through the afternoon, I noted that there was not a
preponderance of green in the store, which was surprising, given that it was
St. Patrick's Day. In fact, it was not until the last half hour that I
started seeing green, both in customers wandering around Logos and in people
walking outside (presumably to DeVere's Irish pub around the corner)

I had worn the only green shirt I had, which was my
President's Day shirt which has the Gettysburg Address printed in the shape
of a picture of Lincoln's head.

Eliza came by and just stood outside the door, facing away
from me. Her thing pastel skirt dragged on the ground and she had a
blue blanket over her head From her body language, I wondered if she
was breastfeeding her baby.

The book lady of February 19 (I'm now calling her
RosaBooks), who bought $52 worth of books last month, telling me she had NO
room for new books, today only bought 5 books, two on non-violence, and two
on biodiversity as well as a coffee table book on "Images of Nature," with
gorgeous photos of scenes in nature. We again talked about
non-profits, GMOs and her other passions.

A thin guy with a belly that made him look pregnant bought a
book on Photography and a contemporary fiction.

The "green people" started coming in, starting with a woman
with a bright green bag from "Goats on the Roof Market. She sat on the
floor for a long time looking at the travel books and finally bought 3 books
in a series by an Egyptian writer.

A woman in a forest green shirt and aqua green backpack,
wearing knee high boots looked through the theater section for awhile and
then asked if I had books by Michael Pollen ("He writes about food.")
RosaBooks was still there at the time and showed her were Michael Pollen
books were. She knew the store books better than I did.

A large man who looked like he might be uncomfortable in
book shops came in with a little girl who wanted to know if we had a book on
Ann Frank. She looked to be about Brianna's age and actually looked
a little like Ann Frank. I was sorry we didn't have the book.

Walt, Jeri and Alice Nan showed up, having been at the Irish
pub for Irish coffee (the girls) and Guinness (Walt). We came home
briefly and then headed off to Elk Grove to have dinner at Marie's
restaurant, Todo un Poco again (I had chile rellenos, those being green, you
know!). Marie was able to spend time with us and we shut the place
down and as usual came home laden with food she made for us. Walt and
I just glowed watching Marie, Jeri and Ned together. They lived
together for a year when Marie was going to high school and it was like a
family reunion. Marie and Jeri had not seen each other, they decided,
in about 17 years.